A new generation of migrant workers

Despite high property prices, migrant worker Fan Xiaoshun has decided to buy an apartment in the prosperous eastern Jiangsu province.

"I want to buy a big apartment with three bedrooms so my parents can live with us," said Fan, 27, who originally is from neighboring Anhui province, home to a large population of migrant workers.

Fan has worked in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, with his wife for seven years.

While his parents are still farmers in their hometown, Fan is a young migrant worker considered more typical on the streets of Kunshan.

On workdays, they're wearing uniforms. But in their free time, they wear jeans with designer labels as they listen to music on their cell phones.

Fan and his friends are a new generation of migrant workers.

Better conditions

Fan, who earned 1,000 yuan a month in 2000, said his wages have since doubled.

His friend, Wu Dong from the eastern Jiangxi province, is a company guard. Wu earned just 600 yuan a month in 2000 but can now earn 2,000 yuan a month.

Earlier generations of migrant workers earned much less. They also went home more often, especially during major festivals.

Cheng Defu, 60, from Jieshou, Anhui province, has retired from the migrant life. Five years ago, he worked as a carpenter in Inner Mongolia and the eastern Shandong province, earning just 700 yuan a month, which he saved and brought back to his family.

Younger migrants seem to spend more, rather than saving their earnings to send home.

Li Dong, 18, from northwestern Gansu province, works at an industrial park in Suzhou. He earns 1,500 yuan a month and spends most of it, he said.

"In the evening, I go to Internet cafes after supper, where I chat or play online games," Li said. On the weekends, he shops, he added.

Cao Bingtai, vice director of the migrants work office of Jiangsu province, said about 25 percent of young male migrant workers the office polled this year -- and 35 percent of young female migrant workers - said they never sent money to their parents .

Nanjing Normal University surveyed young migrant workers in the manufacturing, mining and service industries. The survey found that 54.2 percent of the 2,500 "new generation" migrant workers polled said that improving themselves was the major reason they had left home.

Another 9.2 percent said they wanted to enrich their lives, and 4.2 percent hoped to gain residence status in a city.

Their educational levels are rising, too.

According to a survey by the School of Politics and Public Administration of Jiangsu-based Suzhou University, 32.4 percent of the 450 young migrants polled in Suzhou and Huai'an were graduates of vocational schools. Another 10.8 percent had graduated from colleges or similar institutions.

New worries

Cao noted that 15 percent of the young migrant workers polled for his survey said they had no plans to return to their rural homes.

"The new generation of workers are internal immigrants," said Wang Kaiyu, a research fellow at the Anhui provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

Some cities, like Kunshan in Jiangsu, have tried to resolve migrant workers' "identity crisis" by encouraging them to buy an apartment.

In Kunshan, migrant workers who own an apartment larger than 80 sq m for more than three years, pay into the social endowment and health insurance funds for more than three years and have contracts with local companies can gain permanent residence, said Jin Xiongwei, deputy director of the Kunshan city public security bureau.

Meeting these requirements is allowing Fan to buy his apartment.

Establishing residency is a special concern for parents.

Wei Ping from Jieshou, Anhui province, went to work in Shanghai with her husband in 2000. Now their son is 6 years old, but they are worried about where he should get his education, she said.

"The quality of schools for migrants' children is poor, but we need an apartment certificate for him to enter a normal school," Wei said.

Xinhua

(China Daily 07/06/2009 page10)